Darlings – a review and more

The Hindi movie, Darlings, is sheer delight to watch. There is no glitter, no glamour, no flamboyance. It’s about some very ordinary people living in a lower middle-class housing tenement without big ambitions. They want a better residence. And some normal human joys – like a child in the family or a husband who cares.

Badru’s [Badrunissa played eminently by Alia Bhatt] husband Hamza [Vijay Varma] is an alcoholic who doesn’t care about anything except himself. Alcoholism, like most other addictions, is about egomania. Addicts are people who don’t love anybody. Not even themselves. But they are always trying to find something within themselves that is worth loving. Addiction is a result of not being able to discover anything to love in oneself.

“What am I but a toilet cleaner [TC]?” When Hamza who is a Ticket Collector [TC] asks that question to himself, he is revealing much about himself. He is incapable of questioning his boss who makes him clean his toilet regularly. Instead of questioning that boss, Hamza takes out his frustrations by drinking and beating his wife. What they cannot do in the public sphere in order to uphold their self-respect, cowards perform bravado at home with their dependents by humiliating or thrashing them. The humiliation of others is one of the few honours that cowards can achieve.

It is not really about cowardice, however. Cowardice is a symptom rather than a disease. The disease is the inability to love yourself. The inability to find something loveable in yourself.

Hamza has nothing to recommend himself to himself. But he cannot obviously accept that he is such a worthless person. Nobody can. And the truth is that nobody is so worthless. People may treat you as worthless for various reasons. It is your duty to discover your own worth. It is your duty to create your worth. Hamza doesn't do that, however. Instead of creating or discovering his self-worth, he humiliates his wife. He becomes great by making her small. This is a very common strategy employed by a lot of alcoholics and other addicts.

Badru plays along thinking that one day her husband will have some kind of enlightenment. After all, she is a “Sati Savitri,” the ideal Indian woman. She knows it is her duty to endure the burdens imposed by her husband. She goes on to endure a lot. A lot, indeed. Hoping that one day her husband will stop drinking and all the problems will come to an end. Hoping that the birth of a child will change the whole reality.

Badru becomes pregnant long after her marriage. But Hamza has a new problem now. Is the child really his? The argument about that ends in his pushing his wife down a staircase which leads to a miscarriage. And frustration. Dark frustration. Dark. Light is not possible in certain frustrations.  

Dark frustration inverts Badru’s personality. She decides to do something about her situation. She has her mother’s support. Her mother, Shamshunissa [played by inimitable Shefali Shah], is a bold woman who has had her own terrible history with a savage husband whom she had dealt with ‘appropriately’. Now the plot turns bleaker and painfully comic.

Yes, painful comedy is what you have in this brilliant movie that transcends all genres. This is made by a genius, I must admit. This is a slice of life culled from our own neighbourhood. You have seen something similar in real life. It makes you smile. Nay, it makes you laugh even when you know that it is dark. Dark.

Black humour is what you have in this movie all through. Just like life. Hamza is real. Badru is real. So is Shamshu. So are all of them. Even the police. The police in this movie are entirely different from the ones we see usually in Indian movies. They are also very human. Like Hamza and Badru. Like you and me.

The two women, Badru and her mother, with the help of two men, take the plot to a thrilling climax. A climax that the menfolk in India won’t enjoy. The climax is a deep kick in their patriarchal balls. That’s why this movie has kicked up some dust in the social media. Some of these men whose balls are crushed by this movie are demanding a boycott of Alia Bhatt. How ridiculous! Come on, she was just playing a role. A role that needed to be played.

According to the latest statistics available in our country [2020], 112,292 cases of domestic violence were recorded in one year. Violence against women. But the men are now protesting against the violence against a man in this movie! We are still in the age of Sati Savitri! The National Crime Records Bureau records that 22,372 housewives killed themselves in 2020 in India. That is an average of 61 suicides every day, one every 25 minutes. The cause is recorded as “marriage-related issues.” Yet the Indian patriarchy wants Alia Bhatt to be hunted down for playing a role in a movie that refuses to idolise the Sati Savitri.

India reports the highest number of suicides globally. Indian women make up 36% of all global suicides in the 15-39 years age group. Add to that the many suicides which are not reported. And add also the attempted suicides whose number is just mind-boggling.  

This movie deserves to be watched. And pondered on. Especially by the guardians of India’s culture. Never mind the fact that this movie is about a Muslim couple. You will find similar people all over India. Religion doesn’t matter. Not a bit.